The driver is usually proprietary closed source software, with a licence legally protecting it from being used in any way the manufacturer does not see fit. All hardware that you connect with your PC through USB needs hardware-specific driver software. Most of the time the driver needed for the USB modem is supplied by the manufacturer, and only available for certain specific versions of MS Windows.Ĭ. Half the time you will get an ethernet modem, and maybe even an ethernet card, in the other cases (often the more economic contracts) you get an USB ADSL modem. When you choose an Internet provider, normally you also get the hardware to set up the internet connection. An ethernet port is an allmost universal way to provide network access, and apart from the advent of wifi, has been for decades.ī. Most home computers and business PC's have an ethernet card, as one is usually supplied on the motherboard nowadays, otherwise one can easily be picked up and installed very cheaply. This is based on very old, tried and tested, standards based technology, which tends to be very reliable and easy to set up. Ubuntu and probably all other Linux based operating systems assume that the network connection runs over an ethernet card (or other standard network card) in the computer.
If you want to start installing your modem straight away, you can jump to the next section.Ī. To get a modem to work with these drivers, you will need to download files from Internet with a computer having a working connection, then transfer the downloaded files to you Ubuntu installation.įor those it would surprise that getting a simple modem to work can be so complicated, we will try to explain why most USB ADSL modems don't work out of the box with Ubuntu.
Often parts of ADSL USB modem drivers are propriatary, closed source software, with a restrictive licence, and so the whole driver cannot be supplied with Ubuntu. By following this guide you should be able to get most common USB ADSL modems working, but some still have slight problems and others do not currently work at all. It is possible however to get USB ADSL modems to work with Ubuntu, although getting some models to work can be quite demanding.
If you can get your hands on an ethernet modem or a router you will save yourself some trouble. If you have a modem that can connect both via USB and ethernet, you should use the ethernet connection.
USB is far from the ideal medium for network access, there are so many problems using USB modems compared using ethernet based solutions that some claim that USB could stand for Un Suitable for Broadband. This guide is for setting up USB ADSL modems under Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake).